The Surprising History Behind Valentine's Day

From spreading goat hide on women to showering them with chocolates and flowers, what are the actual traditions behind Valentine's Day, and who started them?

Valentine's Day is known as the one day of the year where lovers spend the day bombarding one another with gifts and treats to show their affection, yet, most people don’t really know what really started Valentine's Day, or should we say who? 

Based on different beliefs, some people believe that the Pagans were actually the first to celebrate this holiday while Christians merely slapped their name on the pagans' celebration of Lupercalia. Looking back at the Catholic church, we learn that Christians actually distinguish three different saints who were put to death during the common era whose names actually sparked the famous holiday’s name. 

One of these deaths took place during the third century of Rome when marriage was outlawed by emperor Claudius II when he noticed that his soldiers were more useful single rather than those who had a wife to go back to. Yet, a priest by the name of Valentine saw this law as wrongful as it was not in him to ban the righteous act of love through marriage, which led him to actually host secret marriages behind the Emperor's back. Unfortunately, after his actions were discovered, he was sentenced to death. 

The second death took place in Terni, a place outside of Rome where a bishop by the name of Saint Valentine who, as well, was beheaded by the emperor Claudius ll. While the third death was said to be of a prisoner named Valentine, who was captured for helping Christians escape from prisons in Rome. In this tale, it is said that during his stay at the prison, Valentine himself sent out the first ever “valentine” to his first love that he had met during his captivity. He signed a letter with the phrase, “From your Valentine” and gifted it to his jailer's daughter after she had visited him. Being that his actual name was “Valentine”, we still to this day continue to use this phrase when sending out love letters and notes to show our significant other that they are THAT special someone in our lives. 

Now, going back to the Pagan traditions, the celebration of Lupercalia. Just a bit of a warning, the Pagans were a bit more… gruesome with their traditions. Lupercalia was celebrated either February 1st, 15th, or just during mid-February. Based on Britannica.com, this celebration was the pagan’s way of celebrating the arrival of spring and was dedicated to a Roman god of agriculture by the name of Faunus. Members that would participate such as priests and anyone in the Luperci, would gather up and offer sacrifices of animals - such as goats and dogs - and collect the blood to ensure fertility and purification in the new season. With the very blood that was collected, members of the Luperci would go around tagging all the women. YES, you heard that right, the women were touched with the blood of the goat they just sacrificed. Yet, the women were very welcoming of this as they strongly believed that this would make them far more fertile in the new year. After this, the women would all gather their names in an urn and were matched with men through a lottery in order to be set and ready for marriage and childbearing. This tradition was soon forbidden by Pope Gelasius by the end of the 5th century because all the sacrifices were soon frowned upon and seen as “un-Christian.” This inevitably set up the implication of Valentine's day being the 14th of February in order to replace this other celebration that most vaguely know about now. 

What do you think: Who actually deserves the credit for this holiday we all know and love? Personally, i'm just going to stick to celebrating this holiday with the people I love, no matter where it came from.